Shooter McGavin wasn’t successful in stealing Happy Gilmore’s Green Jacket, but the actor who played him did get a chance to sink the complicated putt from the film’s climactic scene.
Christopher McDonald, who played Shooter in the original Happy Gilmore, spoke to Us Weekly exclusively for M&M’S Golf Challenge 2024 Sweepstakes. As part of the partnership, McDonald challenged fans to a round of mini golf for the ultimate prize of a Peanut Butter Championship Jacket and a year’s supply of M&M’s Peanut Butter.
While McDonald, 69, had to sign an NDA after accidentally letting it slip that Happy Gilmore 2 was on its way, he’s glad to look back on some of the more iconic moments from the original film.
In the first movie, Happy (Adam Sandler) is one putt away from defeating Shooter on the 18th hole of the Tour Championship when a television tower falls, creating an intricate maze blocking Happy’s ball from the hole. Happy, of course, comically sinks the putt by hitting the ball off a Volkswagen and letting it carom off the sides of the tower, roll down its rails and finally fall into the hole.
“I begged our director Dennis Dugan to let me make that final shot,” McDonald admitted. “Though it wasn’t a putting green, of course, it was a botanical garden because no one is gonna let you drop a tower and bring in a VW there. He gave me five tries. I think that was the fifth. And that was a really crazy ad-lib in response afterwards and it was very fun to do.”
McDonald celebrated sinking the putt off-camera by channeling his inner Happy.
“I threw my club up in the air,” he admitted, much like Happy would when he was frustrated. “As I did, I let go, went, ‘I hope I don’t hit anybody,’ but most of the people were behind me.”
The world never got to see McDonald sink the putt, but nearly 30 years later, fans still remember him as one of the most iconic Sandler villains.
“I do love being an ambassador for this film and I love doing the things,” McDonald said. “I’m in an airport, I travel a lot ,and I hear like they don’t wanna say it to my face, they’ll go, ‘Shooter’ and I just gotta put the guns up and keep walking.”
Sandler announced earlier this month that a Happy Gilmore sequel is in the early stages of production, but so far the only confirmed major details are that Happy will return as an aging golfer who “is a bit of a mess” and Travis Kelce will make a cameo.
“I’m not that big a fan [of Kelce] because I’m a Buffalo Bills fan and [the Kansas City Chiefs] happened to do a little damage to my team for a couple years now,” McDonald said. “I’m a little bit bitter.”
Whether it’s in the sequel or not, McDonald will certainly have plenty of opportunities to flash the finger guns — Shooter’s celebration after making a shot — in the M&M’s Peanut Butter Championship.
“It was a really funny thing they came up with, making three beautiful courses of putting for mini golf, and they’re hard to do, believe me,” McDonald said. “They’re a challenge. Whoever’s gonna beat me today is gonna have to work for it because I hope that I can take home that year’s supply of M&Ms, baby.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi.